Slow Down, Gocco Kitty!!

I pulled out my gocco today and made some cards that I am completely unhappy with. Well, Gocco Kitty made some cards today - not me. She goes WAY too fast and is VERY messy. I'm very much a perfectionist and would NEVER make anything so crooked and with smudges too! But what could I do? I just couldn't stop her. Oh well. You'll be able to find these little diddy's in my Etsy shop next week at a very discounted price.

Bad Gocco Kitty.

Lookie What I Found - Etsy LOVE

Are these colors awesome or WHAT? I just discovered a cute shop on Etsy called Hondamom. Her creations are a wonderful mix of texture, color and pattern that make them irresistable. There's something a little retro to them, but they're definately NEW. Can't you just see one of her beautiful pins on a little cardigan this fall? I sure can! You can check out more of her creations on her Flickr account. And she's just started a new blog where you can find out what she and her craftiness are up to.

More Printmaking LOVE

The print maker in me is drooling over these Nate Duval art prints that I just discovered in his Etsy shop. I like the colors he's chosen, leaning toward that late 60s early 70s vibe I've been gravitating toward lately. Kinda retro, kinda not. He also has a website where you'll find his portfolio and some way cool website design. (Hmmmm. I need some of that.)

Oh! And good news! He is now making baby t-shirts. I really love this one.

Going Wild

Since we haven't gone anywhere so far this summer, my son and I have become a little cabin crazy. We were watching a documentary on giraffes and got a great idea! A trip to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas! What a fun day trip!

Doesn't this zebra look familiar (see previous post)? What a weird coincidence. We went out there to feed the giraffe's and ended up seeing TONS of zebras (see my Flickr site for more pictures of the trip)! I love that place!

Printmaker LOVE

These beautifully printed cards have inspired me to get my little Gocco out again. The artist is Eliza Jane Curtis of Morris & Essex. Her Etsy shop is filled with more beauties like these, and if you hurry on over there you may score a great deal on one of her hand printed t-shirts as she's having a SALE! She also has a very pretty website where you can find out a little more about her, the artists who inspire her work and how she came up the the name Morris & Essex.

I Knew There Were Brains Behind These Beauties!

Drive By
Crime Scene
Beautiful Nightmare

I first saw Pam Glew's work when she was featured in an Etsy front page treasury with one of my husband's prints from our Etsy shop. I found myself going back to her shop again and again to study her images. The fear, the glamour, the patriotism, the feminism, the color, and the graphic nature of her images are ALL inspiring to me. Yeah, she rocks. Learn more about her at her website and find about upcoming shows on her blog.

Cool Clothes, Man!

I have such fond memories of sitting at the catalogue counter in the fabric store, pouring over pages and pages of the BIG GIANT catalogs while my mother picked out the fabric for the next set of matching outfits she would make for me and my sister. Heaven. Pure Heaven. Now, thanks to Ebay, I own three of those huge books from the late 60's and early 70's and I LOVE them. I'm not sure if I'm skilled (or patient) enough to actually make an outfit, I just love the artwork!

Mommy's Been Playing with the Cars Again

I'm having WAY too much fun playing with these cars. I shoot the photos in my front yard while my neighbors drive by waving. Today it was so hot I got a little dizzy out there. Was it the heat?

These will all be available on my Etsy shop. Stay tuned. I have lots more playing to do.

Funny Book

Oh my! I know I'm late to the table on this one, but if you haven't thumbed through Amy Sedaris's book, "I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence" yet, you're in for a TREAT! I first saw this book about a year and a half ago and didn't know what to make of it. Then, I picked it up at the library recently and I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING!! So many useful tips on hosting parties, crafts, cooking. Genius!

Muscle Car Diecast LOVE

Today I went with my son to the toy store to spend some money from his piggy bank. I couldn't leave there empty handed! So I picked up these:

I LOVE them.

Find out more about them here. And here.

Am I going too far with my muscle car "thing"? Nah.

Vintage Stationery Love

Oh, lookie what I found. I picked up this fab stationery at an estate sale I went to recently. The round owl stationary folds to a rectangle and stays closed with a sticker! The box was labelled "YeaRounds". The flower stationery is big (9 1/4" x 12") and came with matching lime green envelopes. What a find!

Hmmmm.. to use or not to use.... THAT is the question.

Hunka Hunka

I'm NOT obsessed with the movie "Vanishing Point" or anything, I just really like the visuals: the landscape and this super freaky car plowing its way through it. Its just hitting a 'man-inside-machine-inside-nature' chord in me right now. And its bringing to mind a part in Kent Nerburn's book "Neither Wolf Nor Dog" where he describes riding in a big old car across a reservation; plowing across a giant field (no road or trail) that goes on into the horizon and the freedom he felt and the vastness of the land. Great book. I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I'm going back through the movie to get a closer look at some details and imagine my shock when I see this man:

with the cool sideburns, the thick collar, the vest and the awesome watch, wearing THESE shoes:

See these shoes? Little tiny Keds! Little tiny white canvas "tennies"!

Boy have the times changed!

I Like Me a Good Muscle Car Sometimes

Okay, so I have a thing for muscle cars. Maybe because I drove one in high school: A Poniac LaMans GT Custom S - uh, when it would start. It wasn't suped up or anything, it was just a V8 with rear wheel drive, fat tires and a lovely rumble once I got it out on the open road.

I'd forgotten about that big green machine until I saw Quentin Tarantino's Grind House movie, "Death Proof", a fine revenge film with a scary dude, lots of super cool cars and Zoe Bell (my hero) doing some awesome stunts on the hood of a Dodge Challenger (see some of that here). Once I saw that I had to see some of the car chase movies of the seventies that Mr. Tarantino mentions in the interviews on the DVD.

So last night my sweet husband brought home Vanishing Point. Made in 1971, the whole film is almost entirely made up of car chases! If you want a peek into the sevenies male psyche and see some beautiful landscape in the process, check it out. Oh, and that Dodge Challenger is super cool too.

Poniac Lamans GT Custom S Card

Ford Mustang Mach One Card

Super Nova Card

Dodge Challenger Card

Since I'm too chicken to strap myself onto the hood of a speeding car like Zoe, I decided to make some new cards instead. These are all available in my Etsy shop as single cards and a complete set of four cards. Keep an eye out for new muscle car cards. There are SO many more I'd like to make. Have you ever seen a Superbird?